EPFL engineers are developing a chip that records stress levels via sweat
This could lead to stress monitoring. Wearables
Engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a portable sensor chip that can be used to measure the cortisol concentration in sweat. Since cortisol is the body’s hormone released in response to stress, the chip could lead to wearables like smartwatches that can monitor the user’s stress levels throughout the day. “[U] Until now there has been no way to objectively quantify the stress level,” EPFL wrote in its announcement. “This creation has the potential to change that.
Cortisol helps regulate our metabolism, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure. It also helps our bodies respond to stressful situations by sending energy to the brain, muscles, and heart to prepare The hormone is released according to a circadian rhythm throughout the day and not only in particularly stressful situations. For people who suffer from stress-related problems and illnesses, this rhythm is switched off or the body produces too little or too much hormone. These situations can lead to weight gain and obesity due to stress-related eating and cardiovascular diseases lead to illness, depression, and burnout.
The patch developed by the Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory (Nanolab) and Xsensio at EPFL have a transistor and an electrode made of graphene. It has short pieces of single-stranded DNA or RNA that can bind to cortisol for a device to measure its concentration in sweat. “That is the key advantage and innovative feature of our device. Because it can be used, scientists can collect data quantitative, objective data on certain stress-related diseases. And they can do so in a non-invasive, accurate, and instantaneous way across the entire range of cortisol concentrations in human sweat, “said Nanolab Director Adrian Ionescu.
Engineers already have tested their creation in the lab, and their next step is to test it in a hospital setting. They are now working with the University Hospital of Lausanne to test the system in human patients, some of whom have Cushing’s syndrome (in which the body produces too much cortisol), Addison’s disease (in which the body does not make it enough) and stress-related obesity. Patients with psychological illnesses are not included in those trials, but the team believes that the patch could help doctors bet on understanding them.
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Engadget / TechConflict.Com